Saturday, 29 October 2011

Following the success of the Eureka 300 Club Ventaurans project, fans of the old 25mm Denizen minis have decided to try and get a second range sculpted in 15mm. This time they have set their sights on the Federation Space Troops, SF 30-39 on the Denizen web store:

For those of you who aren't familiar with Eureka's 300 Club - here's the concept. A customer can submit an idea to Eureka that has a reasonable chance of production. That project is placed in the 300 Club Pre-Order section... once a project reaches 600 miniatures preordered from 10 customers, Eureka has them sculpted, cast, and makes them available for sale.

Denizen graciously allowed their Ventauran designs to be used last year, and those minis are now available in 15mm. For the Federation minis, Denizen is once again allowing their designs to be used. So if you have any interest in seeing these troopers in 15mm, head to this page and place your orders.

And just for some fun weekend discussion: what would you, the readers, like to see submitted to the 300 club? Something else from an old and defunct range? Or something new entirely that isn't currently offered in 15mm? Post some ideas in the comments!

Friday, 28 October 2011

Brigade Models have just announced some new 15mm buildings that should be available shortly. These are upscaled versions of Brigade Models' recent 6mm desert buildings range and are small dwellings that have a strong "Mudisley" feel to them. These are just the first of the range of buildings due from Brigade and there are apparently several more in development, including some more futuristic designs.

The Dropship previously caught up with Tony at Brigade to hear about his ambitious plans for 15mm sci fi so we're sure there's more to follow, including Neo-Soviets and Pacific Federation in 15mm.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Originally, the Mercenary Line consisted of Captain Bytt and his crew, and Bytt’s hired guns. The concept was brilliant. Like one of those slightly non-PC jokes that begins, “a Ptaar, a Korahga, a Gathneiki and a Farthoom walk in to a bar …”, we were presented with a group of characters, rather than the makings of an army.

While some of the later releases in the range, such as the Blockheads, the Ygs, the Astragars, and the ZAS, were more racially homogeneous, Critical Mass Games has continued to offer us disparate groups of story-rich characters, such as the Mercenary Droptroopers and the Freakshow.

I do like MERC11 The Freakshow. If Bytt’s hired guns are Interstellar bad-asses, then the Freakshow are just bad – a mini-gun toting cyborg with half his fleshy face ripped off; a big, heavily armoured guy with a huge beard; a little, two-toed demon with bulging eyes; a guy wearing partial ARC Fleet-style body armour and carrying an enormous rifle; and an enigmatic lizard-man. The Freaks look like they’d happily break things for no extra charge. As I mount my figures on 16mm washers, I have clipped Lizard-man’s base to fit and gently bent his tail around in a curve.

In the second photo, you can see the back of the little demon – a huge spread of braided hair. Big Beard, at photo-right, has pointy ears on either side of his big, bald head and, while he appears to be wearing a lot of armour, much of it appears to be strapped on over clothing of some sort, rather than a carapace. There is a lot of very intricate detail on these figures and I keep finding new things as I look at them closely.

I mentioned in part 1 of this review how much I welcomed the arrival of the caninoid Protolene Khanate as they seemed to me to be ideal proxies for Traveller Vargr. MERC12 Protolene Mercenary fighters offers four figures that can either be adventurers, or officers and specialists for a more conventional Protolene force. Along with a sniper and a leader-type (with pistol and rifle), there is a rifleprotolene and a SAW gunner. Again, there are lots of little details on the armour and equipment that really repay close scrutiny before painting.

Most of you are familiar with MERC13 ZAS Infantry, as they grace this blog’s masthead and are frequently enquired about. The ZAS are a four-sophont squad of sniper, SAW, and two rifleZAS, wearing slim-line, fully sealed, full combat armour and sealed helmets. While humanoid, they are slightly taller than standard humans, and their legs seem just slightly out of proportion to their bodies which gives them a slightly non-human vibe.

These three sets of figures will either provide you with ready-made crews for ItEN or 5150: New Beginnings; or characters or villains for a Science Fiction RPG; or squads for creating your own Alien Legion-type force; or officers, specialists and “foreign advisors” for a larger, Tomorrow’s War-type field force. And there’s no reason why they can't fulfil all these roles.

In Part 3 of this review, we’ll look at big, stompy battle suits, more Praesentia, and resin casting as it should be done.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Mad Robot Miniatures released their first 15mm minis this week (the Tachyon Mercenary Corporation Jump Troops), and Steve was kind enough to send me a review pack. I’ve been looking forward to these ever since the original discussion thread at TMP. Jump troops are a great science fiction trope, and many rules currently allow for this type of infantry to be used. But the 15mm sci-fi community has long been devoid of jump-pack/jet-pack infantry. Mad Robot has come to the rescue.

The TMC pack comes with ten minis, composed of six different poses. Half are airborne and half have both feet on the ground. They can be used as a complete 10-man squad, or one could swap “airborne” for “ground” poses to represent movement of a 5-man squad. The detail of the sculpts (and the castings) is very, very good. Other than a sliver of mold line on the helmets, these minis required no cleaning or trimming. The integrated bases on the “ground” troops are nice and flat - no Blue Moon-style “pitcher mounds” here. The flying poses come with no base at all - they could be attached to the ground or a small rock, or they could be mounted on wire or acrylic rods (I’m going to attempt the latter).

Ready to paint

The weapons are a bit unusual for this type of release: three different weapons are clearly visible. Two appear to be assault rifles, and the third is definitely a directed-energy weapon. I really like this decision. Mad Robot Miniatures designed these as a mercenary unit. One can easily imagine that these troops purchase their own weapons with their signing bonuses - instead of being forced to carry an “off the rack” weapon, each trooper has the flexibility to buy, carry, and maintain the weapon that he is most proficient with.

Comparison with GZG Ravager and Rebel Titan Marine

And now for some possible bad news: these minis are VERY tall. I measured 18mm to the eye, around 21mm overall. At 1/100 this means the Jump Troops average 6’10” each. The NBA will probably watch their careers with great interest!

Comparison with Micropanzer SAS and Kremlin Cyberian

Does this pose a major problem? Maybe, maybe not. If you plan to use these minis to augment (or oppose) an existing human force - you’ll probably notice the difference. But even this could be explained away. Perhaps they are from a low-gravity colony world? Or, as my wife (the sci-horror writer) suggests, some sort of genetic enhancement or tampering?

Comparison with HOF Post-Apoc and Critical Mass Light Recon

But if you’re using these as their own force, especially if their opponents are aliens, their height won’t be an issue. They scale well to most aliens I own; in fact they look great alongside Crusties, Astagar, Garn, and some of the other “big” xenos.

Comparison with Critical Mass Astagar and Khurasan Garn

Comparison with Micropanzer Raivaui and GZG Crusty

Steve was up front with me about the height issue. And he assured me that future human releases will not suffer from this problem. This is Mad Robot Miniatures’ first ever 15mm sci-fi release. Other than that one flaw, I think they produced a great set of miniatures.

Comparison with The Scene Heavy 'Bot and Khurasan Felid

What would we like to see from them in the future? I’d start my wishlist with a second pack of these! Maybe we can see another Jump Troop set that’s just a few millimeters shorter (obviously!), uses identical/issued rifles, and includes one or two females in the pack. Including another NCO and some kind of heavy weapon would give us a great rank-and-file jump troop pack.

Saturday, 22 October 2011

Antenociti's Workshop, known for their very popular 28mm Governance Of Technology range, have updated their store with their first 15mm releases.

The NRF Kabardin APC is available with both General Purpose and Anti-Tank turrets. This is a high-tech wheeled transport that looks like it would be at home anywhere from 50 to 5000 years in humanity's future:

They have also released the NRF Skorpion Light Grav Tank. While there are enough styling cues in the hull to use the Skorpion alongside the Kabardin APCs, I think this tank would easily be at home in a xenos army:

So let's open our wallets and welcome Antenociti's Workshop to the world of 15mm Sci Fi. They already have so many great 28mm items to choose from... hopefully we can encourage them to release more of those goodies in 15mm!

Friday, 21 October 2011

Dropship Horizon recently caught up with the French sculptor known only as “PF” to get an insight into the person behind the impressive creative talent.

First of all, how did you get into the hobby and science fiction?

I think I began to love space opera and especially aliens with the Shi’ar Empire depicted in the X-Men comics. There wasn’t much, but I really loved those cool and weird aliens in the background. At the time I also had Star Wars toys but only saw the movie several years later.

I guess I got into the hobby like many others; I read Steve Jackson books where you were the hero, then discovered RPGs and little metal fantasy soldiers. I often hear miniatures were much cheaper in the good old days but when I was a kid, collecting an army was just an expensive dream and I couldn’t do much more than paint them (or rather ruin them!) with Humbrol paints. One day, I wanted to find another box of those plastic space marines I liked so much but my older brother told me they had disappeared and brought me a Warhammer 40,000 box instead. That was pretty cool. Still, I didn’t really start collecting and painting armies until I got a job at a GW shop in Paris. It’s there I got the virus.

I discovered 1:100 sci fi two years ago after John Bear Ross told me I should try to make a few aliens in that scale. So I would really like to thank him for the suggestion as I’m having a lot of fun with 15-18 mm!

How did get started sculpting and who have you sculpted for?

GW showed sculpts in the White Dwarf and wrote they were made out of that “green stuff” they were selling so I tried. There aren’t many fields where you can have access to the professional stuff for very little money. In the early days of coolminiornot.com I created an account (which has been erased since and recreated), posted a sculpt or two and was contacted by a small company, met some cool guys and started to earn a few Euros for my sculpts. Most of the companies I have worked for can be seen on my website.

What are the key sources of inspiration for your sculpting and art?

Except when I’m commissioned or for some subjects (animals, fabrics, well, to be honest, too many things), I tend not to use inspiration. I mean there are probably enough subconscious inspirations (movies, comics, etc.) at work when I sculpt so when I go “freestyle”, I try to empty my mind like a space ninja!

When you're sculpting do you start with a plan or image of what you want sculpt?

It really depends. Sometimes, I just have a general idea of what I’m beginning to make - say a girl, a small alien - and sometimes I have a pretty precise idea of what I want to make - a space girl in spandex shooting with a pistol with lines on her clothes like that and a helmet like this, a D***head alien with three eyes and tentacles running!

Why not check out PF’s website and blog for more pictures of his work.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Here's an exclusive preview from Jon at Khurasan Miniatures. These are the Infected, for Khurasan's End Times post-apocalyptic range. These are the degenerate descendants of humans, infected by a virus which turned them into horrible savage cannibals! Apparently the Infected are born with a virus which gives them enhanced senses, strength and an unquenchable taste for human flesh!

I can just see them ambushing human travellers on The Road, or besieging isolated survivor communes scraping out an existence in the rubble of some small town in the post-disaster US! Other possible uses include primitive fighters from another world, alternative dark elf types, Morlocks for Victorian Sci Fi / Space 1889, Talislanta Thralls, or maybe even Firefly Reavers!

There are six Infected poses, and the greens are at the casters now...

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Steve at Mad Robot Miniatures has shared these greens of the upcoming alien range. They should be available fairly soon, so set some cash aside and start thinking about how to paint your own army of evolved terror birds!

Mad Robot Miniatures is thrilled to give you a sneak peak of our next 15mm release, the Harook. Here is a little back story…

"Very little is understood about the Harook; they are unpredictable and have an unknown agenda. Although they have an affinity to other avian species of life, it would appear that they have disdain for all others, especially humanity.

Their speech patterns, consisting of a complex series of squawks and screeches, do not live up to the advanced technology they bear on the battlefield. This leads some to believe that an advanced, as of yet unknown, intelligence directs them."

There are 10 dynamic poses that have been painstakingly sculpted by Pedro Navaro. More to come on these in the near future.

Friday, 14 October 2011

A while back I received some samples from 15mm.co.uk with the intention that I should review them. Well, things got a bit busy and those reviews got put on hold a bit until things levelled out a bit. Well it seemed it was time and so here we are.

Zidhe (HOF 63 through 68)

The Zidhe are 15mm.co.uk's version of space elves, as the name may already have alluded to, and fill the role nicely. In general the miniatures depict a force clad in long coats with most in ornate helmets with attached respirators and a couple figures without.

Overall, the details on these figures are good though not as crisp in some places as I might like. The helmets on the figures are tall and pointed with a visor across the eyes and a hose trailing to a backpack over their shoulder. Weapons are listed as laser rifles and they look the part. Some have pistols at their side. These figures do have a decidedly pulpy feel, something I do like.

HOF63 Zidhe Infantry

There are three poses in this pack of 10. One kneeling, another advancing, and a third carrying a heavier weapon which I assume is meant to be a squad heavy weapon which he carries at his hip. I would have liked to see one or two more infantry poses, especially with the kneeling pose in here.

HOF64 Zidhe Command

This pack includes four poses across 10 figures. The poses depict a helmetless commander holding his rifle at his hip and giving a subtle gesture with his other hand. There is also a communication figure with a pack bearing an antenna on his backpack. The medic in the pack appears to be bearing some sort advanced medical device in his outstretched hand. The forth pose is a psionic of some sort, holding his hand to his head in a show of intense focus.

HOF65 Zidhe Guardians

Two poses across 10 figures. Carrying shock spears, these are intended as elites for the Zidhe. They seem to have the same gear as the rest, though their breather hoses go over their left rather than right shoulders. They are armed only with the aforementioned shock spears, though I was a bit disappointed that there were no features on the weapons to make them look any different than common spears.

HOF66 Zidhe Androids

These odd androids seem to match the general themes of the Zidhe but with a head that is larger and a different sort of visage. They also look to be carrying a different sort of weapon from the rest. The androids do not have the breather hose that the living Zidhe do. There are only 2 poses of android for the 10 figures in a pack, but they are general enough that it should not be a problem. These figures might make a good basis for Martians as depicted in The Martian Chronicles.

HOF67 Zidhe Jetbike

With a very retro style to it, the Zidhe jetbike provides a bit of fast attack. Unique enough to stand out and consistent with the aesthetics of the Zidhe. I did feel that the rider sat a bit too far back in the vehicle, but the vehicle certainly looks alien but familiar.

HOF68 Zidhe Portable Weapon

I'm not sure what to think of this particular offering for the Zidhe. It is obviously some sort of emplaced weapon, but the design seems very basic with a spear-like weapon projecting from a very static looking base. There are two crew with this weapon who could easily enough be used to crew a different weapon should you not find the stock weapon to your liking.

Conclusion

Overall, the Zidhe offer a good alien race with a conventional feel. Their long coats and pointy helmets are a nice change of pace from all of the space suit and body armor wearing figures out there. There is a definite Eldar feel to those figures as well if you were looking for 15mm versions of popular 40K races.

Thursday, 13 October 2011

An order from Critical Mass Games arrived in my letterbox last week, having taken a mere four days from the UK to my house. Along with the few bits and pieces I had ordered, Craig kindly included a number of items for reviewing. What follows is what I’ve managed to get based and undercoated so far.

As many of you know, the Critical Mass Games-verse features four main factions plus an expanding range of alien mercenary groups. Each faction has a distinct appearance and technology type as well as a, one assumes, distinct set of tactics.

Back in 2009, Critical Mass Games débuted with the humanoid ARC Fleet. At the time, the Halo-esque helmets and body armour caused quite a stir in the 15mm-o-sphere. With almost no background presented, we were left with evocative names and lots of questions – what does ARC stand for? Are we talking about a fleet of world ships or does the ARC Fleet have a planetary point of origin? Are the ARC Fleet soldiers human? And how augmented are the ‘Augments’?

I personally didn’t get into the ARC Fleet when they were released – I already had GZG New Israelis and UNSC; and Rebel Minis Earthforce Marines, so I had a reasonable selection of armoured infantry – that is, until the ARC Fleet Grav bikes were announced. I do like Grav bikes, and I particularly like grav bikes created by John Bear Ross. AFGB1 is a lovely, one-piece model, with a separate resin stand. The grav bike and attached rider just looks fast - a SciFi Valentino Rossi geared up to cruise the New Hope City air corridors. CMG has actually released two other versions of the grav bike, a two-seater and a missile launcher attack bike, but this is the model that captured my imagination.

The second range CMG released were the caninoid Protolene Khanate. While the ARC Fleet use rather clunky grav tech for their vehicles (apart from the grav bikes), the Protolene favour walkers – both bipedal battlesuits and gigantic four legged all-terrain vehicles. As I already have a pile of Protolenes awaiting painting, Craig very kindly sent me some Protolene Mercenaries and some battlesuits to review - the latter are still awaiting assembly.

For us old Traveller fans, the arrival of the Protolene Khanate was like someone announcing the return of the Vargr in digitigrade form (yay!), though without tails (sad!). I intend using my RAFM Vargr as character figures, while deploying the Protolene when packs of Vargr are required.

The Kaamados Dominion, the third range from Critical Mass, appear to be a reptilian race, though the lightly armoured Naga and the diminutive Squamata Imperialis have quite different morphologies. The Vivipara, the third form, may in fact be Naga in body armour. The Kaamados Dominion appears to favour wheeled and tracked vehicles, and large, pyramid-like buildings.

During the 15mm Science Fiction Figure Exchange on TMP, Craig from CMG posted a picture of a Kaamados Dominion Draco Aganath Maxima Battlesuit painted up as part of his exchange group. While I like the Kaamados Dominion Naga, I hadn’t really considered the other figures in the Kaamados Dominion range, as I really wasn’t looking for more Battlesuits. After seeing Craig’s figure I changed my mind.

The Maxima is armed with two twin barrelled heavy guns of some sort – not quite BFGs, but very close – and a heavier version of the style of armour worn by the Vivipara Infantry. The legs are just slightly out of proportion to the body, which adds to the alieness of the Maxima, yet matches of the body proportions of the lightly armoured Naga. The implication being, I suppose, that a Naga operates the Maxima suit. I like to think that the Naga is entirely encased in the battlesuit's armour and that the suit’s head and optics unit is actually a little remote turret on the front of the thorax carapace. The Maxima is a beautiful model, highly detailed and I can see it playing a role as a character in an ItEN or 5150: A New Hope crew, or even in a 15mm Space Hulk Game.

The final faction, the Praesentia, is perhaps the most mysterious. With Phaseshifters, Enlightened, and Ancients, and with each form progressively physically larger than the one before, one wonders if they continue to grow as they age? The Praesentia also appear to favour combat droids – the RAL – and combat drones. The drones, also of various sizes, appear to use a much more elegant form of grav tech to that of the ARC Fleet.

Again, I had not intended buying any Praesentia as, initially, they didn’t appeal to me. Again, I changed my mind once I saw some Enlightened painted up on a blog in a slightly different fashion. The Praesentia are superbly sculpted figures with lots of movement and action in their chiton-like clothes. Their staff weapon is cast separately and I did have some difficulties getting the wrist lugs to engage properly – partially due to my out-of-practise fingers and failing eyesight – but patience won on the day.

And finally, the Mercenaries. I have picked up packs of most of these, excepting the Drone Walkers, the Vadorian Assassins, the Blockheads and the Astagars. The Blockheads are too similar to the Praesentia RAL, so I will continue to pass on them, and the Drone Walkers and the Astagars aren’t really my thing, but I am beginning to reconsider the Vadorians just because I have seem some painted in a slightly different fashion which begins to make sense to me.

This time around, I went for more Ygs Fighters and the Vorq’La. We have been discussing around the Dropship how to finish off “incomplete” ranges and I wanted to try a proof of concept on the Ygs. Taking one of new pistol-armed Ygs, I carefully removed his pistol and with two pieces of plastic rod, some plastic scrap and a flat-sectioned paper clip, I fashioned an energy weapon for him. The power cable is a bit of thread, but I’m thinking of upgrading it to a piece of string to get the scale correct – I have seen guitar string used for this sort of thing but I don’t have access to any guitars. The left hand rifle-Yg in the above picture is a prime candidate for having his rifle drilled out and extended with some plastic rod to make a SAW or sniper rifle.

I am intrigued by the Vorq’La. Of the five figures in the pack, the halberd-armed one is completely different, lacking both a tail and the exaggerated digitigrade leg structure of the other four, as well as having a differently shaped head. He reminds me a little of the mysterious sentinel figure often seen in 1970’s science fiction book cover art. I like him, though, and he will be a bodyguard type in my skirmish games.

Of the four other Vorq’La, two are armed with rifles, one with a pistol and dagger, and one with a sword and what looks like electronux – electrified knuckledusters. All four have separate heads (five choices) and three have separate tails. To me, the heads look particularly rodent-like or marsupial-like, though they appear to have head crests like a triceratops rather than marsupial ears. One head in particular has an exaggerated display of teeth (the ‘fierce face’) that actually changes its shape when compared to the other heads – see the left hand rifle-Vorq above.

I do like the Vorq’La, they are superbly detailed and genuinely interesting figures and I hope we see more of them. If you are interested in the Vorq’La, or any of the other figure packs in the Mercenaries range, Critical Mass Games is having a 20% off-all-Mercenaries sale until 31 October 2011. Check their webstore for details

In the second part of this article, we’ll have a look at more Praesentia – including drones and RAL – as well as some buildings and some Protolene battlesuits.

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Critical Mass Games is running a sale this month - 20% off all their popular Mercenary packs. These are great packs if you need an assortment of alien bounty hunters, crews, or spaceport ruffians - or can easily be combined to serve in a "alien foreign legion" force.

Personally, I'm going to use this as a chance to pick up some of those really cool Zas Infantry, along with a few packs of Ygs Fighters. I wrote this article about making an army from limited figure poses... now I have the perfect chance to make that happen.

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Art Crime Productions has a Halloween Treat in store for miniature wargamers this month. They are releasing the first offering in their Mercenary line, the Port Reliant Mercenaries, and these bad boys look kind of familiar-

Fans(myself included) of a certain, super-popular video game franchise will be very pleased with these minis. Jimbo at Art Crime Productions was kind enough to send me a sample pack to review-

The pack is comprised of 6 figures; 2 armed with assault rifles, 2 with assault shotguns, 1 with an anti-tank laser, and 1 with a squad support machine gun. A very functional little squad!

The photos of the unpainted figures don't do them justice though, so here's what they look like once they're painted-

All in all, the Mercs are extremely good figures. Very cleanly cast, minimal clean-up. The detail is very crisp, making painting a snap. You don't have to be a Spacejacker or Jeff Racel to paint up a nice looking force of minis.

The official release date for the Port Reliant Mercenaries is October 31, and the pack will retail for $8.00 USD, which might seem a little steep for some gamers, but the overall quality of the castings makes them well worth the cost. This is definitely one set of infantry minis that you should consider adding to your collection.

Again, the Port Reliant Mercenaries will be available on October 31, in the ACP Games store.